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The She-Ra digital one-shot delves into our heroine's pre-Princess of Power's past -- before the Sword of Protection came to her, before she became the Most Powerful Woman in the Universe and before she ever uttered the phrase, "For the honor of Grayskull!"
Kidnapped as a baby by the evil Skeletor, She-Ra's alter ego Princess Adora -- twin sister of Prince Adam (who later became He-Man) -- was raised by the evil Lord Hordak in the dark dimension of Despondos. Lord Hordak renamed Adora Despara and brainwashed her into become a villain. Despara became a force captain in Hordak's army and Hordak's own personal assassin. Upon return to her birth planet, Eternia, Despara was initially Adam's enemy.
- Mike Costa

Not loving this... It's great that She-Ra is being revisited... but it might have been really cool to just go at this with the story being that the Horde was manipulating reality too.

Not loving this... It's great that She-Ra is being revisited... but it might have been really cool to just go at this with the story being that the Horde was manipulating reality too.

Whoa... They are REALLY doing ANYTHING they can to get rid of the PoP Cartoon mythology...

I mean... honestly, I HATED MYPs 'despondos' story. I don't like the 'barrier' that stops He-man from visiting She-ra... I don't like that Etheria is in that dark dimension.... I don't like that it cramps the concept of Hordak stealing Adora in the first place...

At least in the bios... She-ra Chased Hordak to Eternia and brought her friends to continue the battle... But here, it sounds like she was NEVER part of the rebellion on Etheria.

I'm glad DC Comics is retelling She-Ra's origin. It seems only fair since they are retelling He-Man's origin next month. I wonder if She-Ra will be the next printed Origins story, or if they will tell her story in the next miniseries.

I'm glad DC Comics is retelling She-Ra's origin. It seems only fair since they are retelling He-Man's origin next month. I wonder if She-Ra will be the next printed Origins story, or if they will tell her story in the next miniseries.

Didn't it say at the end of the mini-comic that Adora's story would be continued in the next printed comic?

Last edited by Shadow-Ra; December 13, 2012 at 12:17am.

"Skeletor to King Randor, Skeletor to King Randor, come in you Royal Boob!"

This issue is the reason we can "put up" with crazy issues like the Orko one........ The most incredible new take on the mythos I've ever seen. It far exceeds any expectation I may have had. The addition of the Despara moniker and the Hordak Armor is just short of genius. Like I’ve said before:, dark and gritty, taking the campy, sometimes silly property I love and re-inventing it for a new millennium is exactly what I have always wanted.

Some other random thoughts:

IMO - It's either not Flutterina or she's not, “ you know".

I would have been happy with either this being the "current" Adora story or reimagined origin. It’s cool and that’s all that matters.

I'm a little confused with that ,anyway I don't think yet that is a re-telling of the Secret of the Sword .

It changes some details...
• Despondos is added.
• Adora is renamed Despara and has the added crimes of KILLING people for Hordak since she is his assassin.
• Adora shows up on ETERNIA with the Horde instead of He-Man going to ETHERIA

Originally Posted by phantom1592

Whoa... They are REALLY doing ANYTHING they can to get rid of the PoP Cartoon mythology...

I don't think DC's current creative team likes Filmation MOTU much. In a bunch of their interviews, they've kept mentioning how cartoony it was. It seems like the mature themes, sex and violence is a direct answer to people expecting Filmation goofiness from their MOTU comic.

It changes some details...
 Despondos is added.
 Adora is renamed Despara and has the added crimes of KILLING people for Hordak since she is his assassin.
 Adora shows up on ETERNIA with the Horde instead of He-Man going to ETHERIA

I thought this is part of the history of the regular series, "the alternate reality" created by skeletor (she is affected by skeletor spell , does not remember anything and of course she returns to the horde), never thought this as a re-telling of TSOTS... but now i think is both.

People seem to think this is either a re-imagining of SOTS, or where Adora is during the current print run of He-Man... But I don't see why it can't be both. Maybe in the DC continuity, She-Ra has yet to exist, and will come into play on Eternia for the first time once Adan sorts out the whole "everyone's had there memories erased" problem.

I've held my comments back until now because I've only just managed to digest the comic.

Overall, I'm relatively pleased with it. I like the linking of Etheria with Despondos - it ties up two potentially conflicting canons. More than anything else, I'm pleased Etheria got a mention - it's all Despondos this, Despondos that in the MOTUC bios.

Adora's tale - however you look at it - is tragic. That's always drawn me more to She-Ra than anything could have drawn me to He-Man. Something about her story and of course the Rebellion's fight against the Horde always resonated with me - and as an adult, it resonates with me even more.

So, the story of Etheria is already full to the brim with mature themes. The Filmation series did an excellent job in communicating those themes to the children of the 80s. Suffice to say, today's children are exposed to a lot more and so the series as a whole would need some sort of revamp in order to speak to them. But the comic isn't aimed at children - it's clearly aimed at adults.

It strikes me as interesting that this window into She-Ra's world is dark in a 'can-someone-please-switch-a-frickin-light-on?!' way while the He-Man game (and of course the She-Ra update) go for the tongue-in-cheek, cartoony style. The game is clearly meant to remind casual fans of 'the good old days' and appease hardcore fans that the earlier canons have not been forgotten about. The comic seems to be reaching out to another audience altogether, an audience who are used to violence in their comics of choice. I'm kinda fed up with superhero properties being reinvented as 'dark'. I know the point is to convey a good vs. evil battle, but a little light to the comics' shade wouldn't have gone amiss. It all feels so dreary. The Etheria we saw in Filmation was so vibrant in parts and gloomy in others - granted we've only seen a corner of what this Etheria presumably has to offer, but I can't help but feel that most of these 'mature' comic book stories could benefit from a little bit more balance.

Despara looks terrifying. I thought she was a female Hordak at first, which I presume is the point. The mask intrigues me - is it an effigy of Hordak? To represent him as some god-like force the people of Etheria should be afraid of? Or is it simply a way to hide her identity when she's on duty? It does make her fit in with the more monstrous-looking Horde females (Octavia and Scorpia especially) and I'm OK with that. The mask itself kinda reminds me of Hexidecimal from Reboot - and she was one crazy, sinister mutha! So, a pat on the back to whoever came up with the idea. She's still Force Captain Adora under a different name. I get that and can respect the need for a name change.

Flutterina's 'death' seemed immediately unnecessary to me though. For her first couple of panels, she seems to be kicking major butt, which I applaud. It shows she's a force to be reckoned with. Or was. Do I think she'd dead? Yes, to be honest. I think they've killed Flutterina. I hope I'm wrong, but to think she'll be OK because she could create a magical cocoon around herself is slightly naive, IMO. I think they were making a statement by choosing her as the victim, TBH. She's a pretty girl, so she represents the antithesis of what Despara is about and, in a sense, perfectly defines what the Horde are doing to the planet - destroying its beauty. Part of me wonders if they chose her because she's a 'lesser' member of the Rebellion too. Perfuma would've been too obvious. Glimmer would've caused a riot. Flutterina fits somewhere in the middle. And, even if this is some sort of alternate reality because of the skull Laser-Lot was meant to protect, do you really think they're going to bother to resurrect a character who was done away with in three panels? Despite her importance to hardcore POP fans, she means little to casual readers, who are the ones DC are hoping will buy into the comic (they know we'll buy no matter what). I don't like the sentiment - because if Despara had to be seen killing someone, she could've killed a random villager. Death inferred can be equally as powerful, if not more so, than graphic violence, IMO.

Interestingly, Flutterina's killing seems to go against something Despara says to the Horde Troopers: "These people are not for you to summarily execute". It's possible Flutterina could've been healed and mind-wiped by Shadow Weaver, but again I doubt the writers care about her. And apparently in this canon, there was no Small One. Do you really expect the writers to have done that level of research on the property?!

I have a slight problem with some of the dialogue. Shadow Weaver says "I would look on your face" - this is She-Ra, not Shakespeare! I found this even with the MYP cartoon. I wonder who they're targeting with the dialogue because nobody speaks like that. Shadow Weaver isn't Lady Macbeth. Some of the linguistic structure slows the pace of the comic down, IMO. However, much of it Despara's dialogue is heartfelt and ominous - we know it's leading to *something* and while one of those somethings is really obvious, I'm sure there will be some surprises. One other thing about dialogue: I *love* that Shadow Weaver calls Adora 'my darling'. This cements their relationship as mother/daughter, yet it feels so sinister because we know the truth behind the witch's masquerade. Heck, I'm pleased they used Shadow Weaver at all - she hasn't been in much non-Filmation media, but she's integral to Adora's story.

Hordak reminds me of a Doctor Who villain and seems to half fill the role of Horde Prime. I don't like that he looks nothing like the Hordak we know either - this is likely to be confusing for casual fans, who will remember him as being either a blue or grey humanesque bad guy. I thought he was meant to be trapped in Despondos, but his body seems to be somewhere else? Confused.

Nice nod to Skeletor with the blue arm in Adora's vision. It's good to see Bow play a small but important part - more important than he realises at this stage. Great to see that Shadow Weaver's brainwashing mind-control powers have been maintained. And it's nice to see Adora's past catching up to her in the way of a dream - if this is the Sorceress talking to her, then old falcon-head is making a habit of doing so this way because it's exactly how she got in touch in SOTS. Wouldn't a phone call have been easier?

It was an interesting read, with some great potential. I am slightly worried that we'll never see Etheria again if the Horde (and Despara) come to Eternia. Of course, if they reverse the tale, rather than retelling it completely then Despara/Adora could learn her identity on her home planet, but return to fight the Horde on Etheria. I'm thrilled that She-Ra is getting some exposure in this current incarnation of MOTU, but I really don't want Etheria to be lost. While the Horde could all invade Eternia, there's too much potential in the Great Rebellion and everything Etheria has to offer for them to be snubbed.

I'll wait and see what happens, but I pray to God that this issue isn't intended to change Adora's path to becoming the Leader of the Great Rebellion - because that's just as much her destiny as becoming She-Ra.

Don't get me wrong, I like most of the new digital comic. I just thought that this story would have been more interesting if it had been showing how, due to the spell cast by Skeletor, that maybe Hordak was disembodied, and the Horde had repatriated Adora (a while after already being She-Ra). Oh well.

Originally Posted by heavy-eternium

I'm a little confused with that ,anyway I don't think yet that is a re-telling of the Secret of the Sword .

But according to the quote I posted, from Mike Costa, who wrote the comic, it is a re-telling of She-Ra's origin.

Originally Posted by MegaGearMax

• Adora shows up on ETERNIA with the Horde instead of He-Man going to ETHERIA

This is what bothers me. It's like MYP where it limited everything to Eternia. Why? Why not make them Masters of the Universe? Etheria has a huge amount of potential... it has a great number of great characters that I would like to see imagined in this darker, edgier way. I suppose Adora will return to Etheria to make up for her past wrong-doings?

I don't think DC's current creative team likes Filmation MOTU much. In a bunch of their interviews, they've kept mentioning how cartoony it was. It seems like the mature themes, sex and violence is a direct answer to people expecting Filmation goofiness from their MOTU comic.

Well like every media person these days, when working on an existing property, they have to "make their mark!" Heaven forbid they rely too much on a pre-existing story. Hey, want to re-imagine Romeo & Juliet? Sure!! But let's make it dark and edgy. Make Romeo a drug smuggling gang member, and Juliet an under-age prostitute with who spies for her gang-leader father. Then let's set it in Malaysia and add a time-traveling Nurse and Priest who turn out to be working for an alien race who want a human couple to help re-populate their world.

Obviously this is nowhere near that extreme, but it almost feels like it is fashionable in our media nowadays to trash the past. I like evolution, I like change, if it is good. I'm not sure I will love the deletion of the basic story arc of what the vintage toy line, the mini-comics, and the cartoon created. It was successful because it was good - even if it was for children.

I loved most of MYP... it respected most of the past and built on that. Some of what they did wasn't amazing in my opinion, but it was easy to overlook.

We have yet to see what will happen here. Hopefully it will be mature and exciting, but we will see characters like Peekablue, Angella, Sweet Bee, and Sea Hawk re-imagined in cool, innovative ways that respect the source material and its fans (who are likely the people currently buying the new DC material).

Originally Posted by King Tycho

People seem to think this is either a re-imagining of SOTS, or where Adora is during the current print run of He-Man... But I don't see why it can't be both. Maybe in the DC continuity, She-Ra has yet to exist, and will come into play on Eternia for the first time once Adan sorts out the whole "everyone's had there memories erased" problem.

Make Romeo a drug smuggling gang member, and Juliet an under-age prostitute with who spies for her gang-leader father. Then let's set it in Malaysia and add a time-traveling Nurse and Priest who turn out to be working for an alien race who want a human couple to help re-populate their world.

Well like every media person these days, when working on an existing property, they have to "make their mark!" Heaven forbid they rely too much on a pre-existing story. Hey, want to re-imagine Romeo & Juliet? Sure!! But let's make it dark and edgy. Make Romeo a drug smuggling gang member, and Juliet an under-age prostitute with who spies for her gang-leader father. Then let's set it in Malaysia and add a time-traveling Nurse and Priest who turn out to be working for an alien race who want a human couple to help re-populate their world.

Obviously this is nowhere near that extreme, but it almost feels like it is fashionable in our media nowadays to trash the past. I like evolution, I like change, if it is good. I'm not sure I will love the deletion of the basic story arc of what the vintage toy line, the mini-comics, and the cartoon created. It was successful because it was good - even if it was for children.

I loved most of MYP... it respected most of the past and built on that. Some of what they did wasn't amazing in my opinion, but it was easy to overlook.

We have yet to see what will happen here. Hopefully it will be mature and exciting, but we will see characters like Peekablue, Angella, Sweet Bee, and Sea Hawk re-imagined in cool, innovative ways that respect the source material and its fans (who are likely the people currently buying the new DC material).

Hey, it's happened with THIS TOYLINE. To sell Classics, Mattel had to bury the memory of 200X. Suddenly unique sculpts for every character like in NA and 200X was this bad thing called "hyper anime detail". To sell the current version, sometimes the marketing behind the new production hypes their creation up by playing down the older version.

I would also like to see this story be part of the "Skeletor erasing everyone's memories" storyline and NOT be a retelling of She-Ra's origins. In my opinion, it makes it more interesting to see Adora re-integrated into the Evil Horde (for a time), it will make Flutterina's death more meaningful and less throw-away (because all her history is still there and she wasn't a random character in the background who fought for two seconds)...and Skeletor's spell will be broken when Adam and Adora meet each other again and begin to remember their adventures together. They are the Twins of Power, and once re-united, they will break the spell. I would enjoy that story.

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